Venezuela - U.S. Aid Gambit Fails - War Plans Lack Support

A day after the U.S. coup attempt in Venezuela the U.S. game plan was already quite obvious:

The opposition in Venezuela will probably use access to that 'frozen' money to buy weapons and to create an army of mercenaries to fight a 'civil' war against the government and its followers. Like in Syria U.S. special forces or some CIA 'contractors' will be eager to help. The supply line for such a war would most likely run through Colombia. If, like 2011 in Syria, a war on the ground is planned it will likely begin in the cities near that border.

The U.S. is using the pretext of 'delivering humanitarian aid' from Columbia to Venezuela to undermine the government and to establish a supply line for further operations. It is another attempt to pull the military onto the coup plotter's side:

[I]f the trucks do get across, the opposition can present itself as an answer to Venezuela’s chronic suffering, while Mr. Maduro will appear to have lost control of the country’s borders. That could accelerate defections from the ruling party and the military.

Dimitris Pantoulas, a political scientist in Caracas, called the opposition’s aid delivery plan a high-stakes gamble. ...“This is 99 percent about the military and one percent about the humanitarian aspects,” he said. “The opposition is testing the military’s loyalty, raising their cost of supporting Maduro. Are they with Maduro, or no? Will they reject the aid? If the answer is no, then Maduro’s hours are numbered.”

According to Mr. Guaidó and other sources, $20 million in American medicines and food will be unloaded this week just outside Venezuelan territory in Cúcuta, Colombia; Brazil, and on a Caribbean island — either Aruba or Curaçao — near the Venezuelan coast.

Venezuelan military officials and troops in exile will then move these supplies into Venezuela, where if all goes well, army troops still loyal to Mr. Maduro will not stop their passage nor fire upon them. If they do, the Brazilian and Colombian governments may be willing to back the anti-Maduro soldiers. The threat of a firefight with their neighbors might just be the incentive the Venezuelan military need to jettison Mr. Maduro, making the reality of combat unnecessary.

This escalation strategy is unlikely to work unless some additional provocation is involved. The Venezuelan government blocked the border bridge between Cúcuta in Colombia and San Cristobal in Venezuela. Its military stands ready to stop any violation of the country's border.

The U.S. responded to the blocking of the road with a sanctimonious tweet:

The Venezuelan people desperately need humanitarian aid. The U.S. & other countries are trying to help, but #Venezuela’s military under Maduro's orders is blocking aid with trucks and shipping tankers. The Maduro regime must LET THE AID REACH THE STARVING PEOPLE. #EstamosUnidosVE

The U.S. government, which actively helps to starve the people of Yemen into submission, is concerned about Venezuela where so far no one has died of starvation? The lady ain't gonna believe that.

The Venezuelan military has shown no sign of interest to change its loyalty. The fake aid will be rejected.

The government of Venezuela does not reject aid that comes without political interference. Last year it accepted modest UN aid which consisted mostly of medical supplies from which Venezuela had been cut off due to U.S. sanctions. The UN claimed that around 12 percent of Venezuelans are undernourished. But such claims have been made for years while reports from Venezuela (vid) confirmed only some scarcity of specific products. There is no famine in Venezuela that would require immediate intervention.

The International Red Cross, the Catholic church's aid organization Caritas and the United Nations rejected U.S. requests to help deliver the currently planned 'aid' because it is so obviously politicized:

"Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or other objectives," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Wednesday. ..."What is important is that humanitarian aid be depoliticised and that the needs of the people should lead in terms of when and how humanitarian aid is used," Dujarric added.

Rejecting aid out of political reasons is not unusual. When the hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused huge damage along the U.S. gulf coast, a number of countries offered humanitarian and technical aid. U.S. President Bush accepted help from some countries, but rejected aid from other ones:

An offer of aid from the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, which included two mobile hospital units, 120 rescue and first aid experts and 50 tonnes of food, has been rejected, according to the civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson.

Mr Jackson said the offer from the Venezuelan leader, whom he recently met, included 10 water purification plants, 18 power generation plants and 20 tonnes of bottled water.

The U.S. intent to establish a 'humanitarian aid' supply line into Venezuela has a secondary purpose. Such aid is the ideal cover for weapon supplies. In the 1980s designated 'humanitarian aid' flights for Nicaragua were filled with weapons. The orders for those flights were given by Elliot Abrams who is now Trump's special envoy for Venezuela.

While the trucks from Colombia are blocked at the border other 'humanitarian aid' from the United States reached the country.

Officials in Venezuela have accused the US of sending a cache of high-powered rifles and ammunition on a commercial cargo flight from Miami so they would get into the hands of President Nicolás Maduro's opponents.

Members with the Venezuelan National Guard [GNB] and the National Integrated Service of Customs and Tax Administration [SENIAT] made the shocking discovery just two days after the plane arrived at Arturo Michelena International Airport in Valencia.

Inspectors found 19 rifles, 118 magazines and 90 wireless radios while investigating the flight which they said arrived Sunday afternoon. Monday's bust also netted four rifle stands, three rifle scopes and six iPhones.

The pictures show sufficient equipment for an infantry squad. Fifteen AR-15 assault rifles (5.56), one squad automatic weapon (7.62) with a drum magazine, and a Colt 7.62 sniper gun as well as accessory equipment. What is missing is the ammunition.

Where one such weapon transport is caught multiple are likely to go through. But to run a war against the government pure weapon supplies are not enough. The U.S. will have to establish a continuous supply line for heavy and bulky ammunition. That is where 'humanitarian aid' convoys come in.

Unless a large part of the Venezuelan military changes sides, any attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government by force is likely doomed to fail. The U.S. could use its full military might to destroy the Venezuelan army. But the U.S. Senate is already quarreling about the potential use of U.S. forces in Venezuela. The Democrats strongly reject that.

A Senate resolution to back Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, once expected to get unanimous support, has been torpedoed by a disagreement over the use of military force, according to aides and senators working on the issue....“I think it’s important for the Senate to express itself on democracy in Venezuela, supporting interim President Guaido and supporting humanitarian assistance. But I also think it should be very clear in fact that support stops short of any type of military intervention,” [Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.] told NBC News.

It is unlikely that Trump would order a military intervention without bipartisan support.

The a clandestine insertion of a mercenary 'guerrilla' force into Venezuela is surely possible. Minor supply lines can be established by secret means. But, as the war on Syria demonstrates, such plans can not be successful unless the people welcome the anti-government force.

Under the current government most people in Venezuela are still better off than under the pre-Chavez governments. This lecture and this thread explain the economic history of Venezuela and the enormous progress that was made under Chavez and Maduro. The people will not forget that even when the economic situation will become more difficult. They know who is pulling the strings behind the Random Guy Guaido who now claims the presidency. They know well that these rich people are unlikely to better their plight.

U.S. politicians are making the same mistakes with regards to Venezuela as they made with the regime change wars on Iraq and Syria. They believes that all people are as corrupt and nihilistic as they are. They believe that others will not fight for their own believes and their own style of life. They will again be proven wrong.

thanks b, for this and all the links to read... i liked your line here "The U.S. government, which actively helps to starve the people of Yemen into submission, is concerned about Venezuela where so far no one has died of starvation?" indeed and as you note in the last paragraph - "U.S. politicians are making the same mistakes with regards to Venezuela as they made with the regime change wars on Iraq and Syria. They believes that all people are as corrupt and nihilistic as they are. They believe that others will not fight for their own believes and their own style of life. They will again be proven wrong."

all these people preaching this kind of crap, must be getting good returns from who is paying them... the other person in the usa, europe and etc - don't believe this b.s. anymore..

Bulletin Bulletin Bulletin. This just posted on RT. According to geography challenged (!!!!!) Pompous Pompeo = Hezbollah is now in Zenezuela. Yes. You read that right. And further more it's an Iranian Hezbollah. Look out.

Here's the money quote: “People don’t recognize that Hezbollah has active cells — the Iranians are impacting the people of Venezuela and throughout South America,” adding that “We have an obligation to take down that risk for America.”

He also is now referring to Guido-chump as "the duly elected president of Zenezuela." Transmutation Does exist. Amazing.
"throughout South America" Wow. A population explosion!

Thanks for the ongoing reporting of this spinning plate of late empire.

It is encouraging to read that others are standing up to empire in their own little ways that all add up.

From reading comments here and on other sites I am also happy to be reading less BS about Trump being some sort of hidden savior as compared to Clinton II. He is a front for the elite just like Clinton II is/would have been.

From Hudson's piece linked to by mauisurfer
"Indeed,the more America began to lose its hold on its noncommunist allies, the closer America
and the Soviet Union drew together, precisely to threaten Europe and Asia with what
Henry Kissinger called a new condominium, that is, joint imperialism of America and
Russia against their respective satellites."

This is what Kissinger and Trump are now trying to do.
Trumps friendliness toward Russia has nothing to do with peace and goodness and
everything to do with US domination of Asia and Europe.

Bloody Canada: Cheerleading the Lima Group’s Plot to Overthrow the Government of Venezuela
by Maria Paez Victor
(María Páez Victor, Ph.D. is a Venezuelan born sociologist living in Canada).

Guaidó, a son of Spanish immigrants, is a useful idiot, a thug who will be thrown into the trashcan of history for his treason. He does not command any type of institution, not one policeman, not one ministry, no official agency of any sort. He is a president in his own mind and that of the USA Embassy where he is holed out.

Are there any bounds to indecency and intellectual bankruptcy of these people? Is there a line, however desperate, they will not cross in order to achieve their goal? the answer is NO. This is a lost country morally, socially and economically. US is a country that needs a direct military intervention.......by all.

My contribution this morning is that those of us in the US who have
the opportunity to do so might really think about signing on to the
Democratic party when it comes around to election time, if there is
a possibility of an antiwar candidate. The primaries are the
essential pivot in the electoral process. I say this as one who has
become disgusted with both parties. I voted for Jill Stein last
time around, and if there isn't a credible Democrat selected I
certainly won't vote for whoever gets shoehorned in. Just saying this
ahead of time because that party has to start making sufficient noise
against current policies for me to vote for it on the final run.
But I will do my best to help us have a credible candidate at least.

It's worse than that, the shortages in Venezuela are in large part the result of the United States' intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation for more than twenty years. So the United States's "humanitarian aid" to Venezuela is nothing more than a very sick political stunt.

BTW, Kasie Hunt, a "journalist" at NBC asked the kind of question you should never ask unless you are sure of the answer:

Here is the "debunking" of the NBC news report from RT. You tell me which you think is the more credible

Small matter that as Glenn Greenwald pointed out, RT was merely quoting from an article by The Intercept. But the best bit is the replies.
The first in the list is "That one is easy. The RT report is far more credible." and the rest are pretty much the same.

Finally for all you Skripal conspiracy theorists out there, that other source of "fake news" run by the Kremlin, Sputnik News, has an article by Kit Klarenberg about that Bellingcat, The Guardian and MI6 favourite Dan Kaszeta who was the first person apparently to suggest that it was Novichok wot did it. I ran into Dan Kazeta a number of times at Bellingcat because of his dodgy claims about Khan Sheikhoun and chemical weapons (Why has the green tube involved in delivering the alleged chemical weapon never appeared in the west? Because it ain't what the jihadists claimed it was and forensic tests would prove that?)

BTW, with Skripal, there can only be conspiracy theorists out in the wild because the British government has made very little of the evidence behind its stupid claims public, and what they have made public doesn't add up.

At Hudson's website, he gave the interview with Saker this title: "Venezuela as the pivot for New Internationalism?" Spread out in answer to Saker's questions are Hudson's suggestions for the institutions and mechanisms for such a new internationalism:

"The only way that Maduro can fight successfully is on the institutional level, upping the ante to move “outside the box.” His plan – and of course it is a longer-term plan – is to help catalyze a new international economic order independent of the U.S. dollar standard. It will work in the short run only if the United States believes that it can emerge from this fight as an honest financial broker, honest banking system and supporter of democratically elected regimes. The Trump administration is destroying illusion more thoroughly than any anti-imperialist critic or economic rival could do!...

"Looking ahead, therefore, China, Russia, Iran and other countries need to set up a new international court to adjudicate the coming diplomatic crisis and its financial and military consequences. Such a court – and its associated international bank as an alternative to the U.S.-controlled IMF and World Bank – needs a clear ideology to frame a set of principles of nationhood and international rights with power to implement and enforce its judgments.…

"This hostage-taking [of gold and other assets] now makes it urgent for other countries to develop a viable alternative, especially as the world de-dedollarizes and a gold-exchange standard remains the only way of constraining the military-induced balance of payments deficit of the United States or any other country mounting a military attack."...

"Given the fact that the EU is acting as a branch of NATO and the U.S. banking system, that alternative would have to be associated with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the gold would have to be kept in Russia and/or China."...

"The best thing neighboring Latin American countries can do is to join in creating a vehicle to promote de-dollarization and, with it, an international institution to oversee the writedown of debts that are beyond the ability of countries to pay without imposing austerity and thereby destroying their economies.

"An alternative also is needed to the World Bank that would make loans in domestic currency, above all to subsidize investment in domestic food production so as to protect the economy against foreign food-sanctions – the equivalent of a military siege to force surrender by imposing famine conditions. This World Bank for Economic Acceleration would put the development of self-reliance for its members first, instead of promoting export competition while loading borrowers down with foreign debt that would make them prone to the kind of financial blackmail that Venezuela is experiencing."...

"Two international principles are needed. First, no country should be obliged to pay foreign debt in a currency (such as the dollar or its satellites) whose banking system acts to prevent payment.

"Second, no country should be obliged to pay foreign debt at the price of losing its domestic autonomy as a state: the right to determine its own foreign policy, to tax and to create its own money, and to be free of having to privatize its public assets to pay foreign creditors. Any such debt is a “bad loan” reflecting the creditor’s own irresponsibility or, even worse, pernicious asset grab in a foreclosure that was the whole point of the loan." [Emphasis mine to highlight Hudson's suggestions.]

It ought to be clear that Hudson's proposing a new international financial and political/judicial system to ultimately replace the UN and Bretton Woods created institutions. This is certainly the minimum requirement since the Outlaw US Empire has completely trashed the post WW2 system itself designed. Unfortunately, there's still the issue of containing and disciplining the Outlaw US Empire and subduing it so it cannot threaten the newly established institutions.

Che had a bitter falling out with Castro when he gave in to U S demands over Cuba's right to station Soviet missilles on her territtory . Che reckoned the world communist movement would be on the back foot from there on in . The U S must go for broke here in South America to keep Eurasian - belt and road - interests in retreat . Much is at stake! The world is are aware this will be either a fundamental step back for Chinese - Russian interests or a watershed moment for the eclipse of U S reach and power?

I did want to further comment that b has
called attention to vigilance needed on the part of
Venezuelans with respect to all incoming shipments
in order to prevent or capture the smuggled in arms
and ammunition that could destabilize the country.
The Russians, I believe, would have already advised
on this issue, as I am remembering the truckloads
of aid they themselves were sending when Ukraine
was destabilized by coup operatives. They faced
inspection stations at the borders I believe, and
certainly that ought to be the case with what the
US wants to deliver. If the US doesn't want to
deliver it to Maduro, the currently elected
leader - no dice!

According to the German newspaper Junge Welt the border bridge between Cúcuta in Colombia and San Cristobal in Venezuela, which you mentioned, has not been closed, since it has never been open. The article says, the alleged closure of the bridge is fake news to support the coup.https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/348717.kampf-um-venezuela-no-pasar%C3%A1n.html
Nevertheless, thank you for your thoughts and information and please keep up the good work!

Here's a bit of b's post reformatted for
easier reading:The Venezuelan military has shown
no sign of interest to change its loyalty. The
fake aid will be rejected.

The government of Venezuela does not reject aid
that comes without political interference. Last
year it accepted modest UN aid which consisted
mostly of medical supplies from which Venezuela
had been cut off due to U.S. sanctions. The UN
claimed that around 12 percent of Venezuelans are
undernourished. But such claims have been made for
years while reports from Venezuela (vid) confirmed
only some scarcity of specific products. There is
no famine in Venezuela that would require immediate
intervention.

The International Red Cross, the Catholic church's aid organization Caritas and the United Nations rejected U.S. requests to help deliver the currently planned 'aid' because it is so obviously politicized:

Couldn't agree more - we are such a US flunky. Also, the cbc has become increasingly pathetic and irrelevant - they're getting a good rogering on other sites such as Babble for their extraordinarily biased coverage of everything imperial.

In case no one has linked to it, here's a letter sent to the EU re May 20 elections in Venezuela:

"They know well that these rich people are unlikely to better their plight."
This is certainly correct but a terrible understatement. It should read: 'They know only to well out of experience, that the Venezuelan Sucker class will take bloody revenge if they succeed to gain power again.'

"The pictures show sufficient equipment for an infantry squad. Fifteen AR-15 assault rifles (5.56), one squad automatic weapon (7.62) with a drum magazine, and a Colt 7.62 sniper gun as well as accessory equipment. What is missing is the ammunition."

To pick a nit:

I know the article references AR-15, but the M16 and the M4 are the military assault rifle versions of the AR-15. The M16/4 is a fully automatic machine gun.

to Zanon. # 7 Yes of course they are allies. However, you must, I hope, admit that the idea of Hezbollah "cells" all over south america is a wee bit comical. The fact that the two countries are allies does not necessarily translate to "we must take them down." The way His Pomposity puts it, those cells are just sprouting up every where. It's a bit ridiculous.

B, don't forget the regime change playbook also involves bribing public officials to come over to their side. Here's any example of how it was done Syria:

Qatar’s ambassador in Mauritania allegedly offered his Syrian counterpart an advance payment of US$1 million and a monthly salary of $20,000 over 20 years, trying to convince the diplomat to defect and voice support for the opposition.

All they need is a couple of snipers to kill protesters and the Mighty Wurlitzer of propaganda will supply the war, to paraphrase William Randolph Hearst.
You would think that the propaganda receivers would learn by now, with the same propaganda used time after time, year after year, war after war.
You would be wrong. I am losing sympathy for the people of the imperial countries, and their inability to learn from experience.

Except that the Hildabeast had been pushing for a No Fly Zone
in Syria after the Russian Air Force entered the scene and
started pushing the Jihadist Orcs back. If the Hildabeast
had been elected it quite likely that we would have seen
dogfights between US and Russian planes, followed by further
escalations

@40 wagelaborer. Therein lies the challenge. Will Humanity keep listening to Ole Wurly's tune til the end or will it learn from its mistake and abandon the old schemes? In other words, will Man (and Woman, or course) become sovereign or will he/she stay a slave? Recent developments in Ukraine and especially Syria give hope that Homo Sapiens Ethicus is emerging..

According to military expert Yuri Liamin Venezuela has S-300VM Antey-2500 and Buk-M2E
long range air defenses, and Pechora-2M middle range air defenses. T-72B1V, BMP-3, BTR-80A,
SAU Msta-S tanks. Noah-SVK, MLRS Grad and Smerch automatic propulsion arms. Su-30MK2 fighters.
Well trained ground troops with Igla-S MANPADS and ZU-23 / 30m1-4.
And thousands of armed and well trained militias, expected to grow
to over a million strong ( as per Fidel Castro instructions, haha)

Elliot Abrams seems to be having trouble getting this coup off the ground. He must wonder what happened to the good old days of death squads and contras....

>Elliott Abrams, who leads the Trump administration's special envoy to Venezuela, said on Thursday that several countries have offered to take in Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

"I think it is better for the transition to democracy in Venezuela that he be outside the country," Abrams said. "And there are a number of countries who are willing to accept him."

"Which ones?" Bloomberg reporter Nick Wadhams asked.

"He's got friends in places like Cuba and Russia," Abrams said. "And there are some other countries actually, that have come to us privately and said they would be willing to take members of the current illegitimate regime, if it would help the transition."

Nice graphic to support fact that "Unlike UK and most of EU - and contrary to BBC repetition - 'the international community' has not fallen into line behind Trump on Venezuela."

Victor J @44--

Pepe Escobar posits there're "arguably 15,000 Cubans who are in charge of security for the Maduro government; Cubans have demonstrated historically they are not in the business of handing over power." They're likely well versed in the use of those Russian armaments. It's also likely that there's a Russian or Chinese satellite in geosync orbit above the region using its sophisticated sensors to detect infiltration attempts, something Central Americans lacked during the Contra-Terror.

The embarassment of being associated with Trump must now be getting through even
to the most fanatical fascists such as Freeland. And the Europeans.
From a PR point of view statements such as Abrams' "The time to negotiate
with Maduro is long past." Or the original ultimatum demanding elections within 8 days!
Are completely over the top. And likely to be seen as such. Sanctioning members of the
Constituent Assembly- the elections to which were uncontroversial-also indicates that
what the opposition and the United States want is war, they will continue to turn down
peremptorily all offers to mediate or compromise.
If they don't end things soon they will be completely discredited everywhere outside
the political caste. Even the MSM are going to find it hard to keep up looking the other
way and pretending not to know the most elementary facts.

Yes, the corrupt Trump and his administration will be proven wrong as were Obama's and Bush's administrations, but unfortunately Venezuelans, and perhaps Iranians soon, will be used as pawns, and people will suffer, their lives will be destroyed as hell is being unleashed on their lives. Meanwhile the media, damn them as well, are useful tools for the Administration, spouting regime-change humanitarian propaganda, just like they did with the Syrian Observatory's reports and White Helmet footage.

Debunking this avalanche of bull is what you do best as demonstrated with this article. Let's not forget that alongside the proxy regime change civil war, a propaganda and mass deception war is waged on the minds of Venezuelans deprived by sanctions and on all of us sick and tired, weary, of the AZ Empire's successive wars. So pull down on to your anti-bullshet visor cause it's just starting again, the worst is yet to come, and so far Russia's hardly around to help with the pushback.

(I see someone unwittingly mucked up this thread misusing tags with an excessively long link making it impossible to read comments. It's even difficult to comment. 😕)

@ bevin who wrote:
"
Even the MSM are going to find it hard to keep up looking the other
way and pretending not to know the most elementary facts.
"
The MSM is part of the problem because they ignore facts and make
up supporting narratives for evil
The MSM exists to support empire and nothing else; they are the court reporters
for the God of Mammon monotheistic religion that none discuss in public.

As to the EU which is showing more signs of fracture
Marco is a ratboy of private finance
BREXIT is happening because the City of London does not want any transparency
into their evil
Germany is still under WWII thumb of US
Italy is the only one showing some transnational perspective and guts

Lots of plate spinning going on by empire while who knows what is going on
behind the scenes.
Will the next US shutdown happen before or after the invasion of Venezuela
and the fake exit from Syria? /snark

I agree with karlof1 that a new UN and world court need to be instantiated
to signal the intention to prosecute war crimes and provide alternatives to
the jackboot of global private finance.

@ bevin - i agree with @49 psychohistorian.. the msm is a huge part of the problem.. here in canada, our national outlet - cbc - are a disgrace.. here) is today's fluff piece on guaido and hit piece on maduro... the cbc have become so predictable for carrying water for the empire, that many are getting ready turned off by them.. for a national news outlet paid for by canuck taxpayers, it is truly pathetic.. they need to do hit pieces on this fascist freeland, but instead want to turn reality upside down..

on a positive note, i am quite sure when the federal election happens in oct of this year, as memory serves - the liberals will not remain in power and freeland can get back to writing george soros memoirs..

@50 bobzibub... your link doesn't bring me to the article, but i suspect it is more then just crystallix - the canuck gold mining company - that are pushing for a change in power in venezuala.. as i understand it, there are a number of canuck mining and oil related interests where they would like to exploit venezuala and can't seem to get around the democractically elected gov't of maduros..

looks like this might be related, or the article you were trying to post? an american judge says crystallex can have citgo, lol....

I am 70 and am thinking that when I was growing up the
US Democrats represented the concepts of socialism
and the Republicans that of capitalism

Today I see the Democrats as representing capitalism
and Republicans representing fascism.

A commenter on another thread asked me about my China
socialism focus and referred to the US Interstate highway
system initiated in the Eisenhower era when the marginal
tax rate was in the low 90 percent range. America has and
continues to embrace aspects of socialism they refuse to
believe exists in America.......the effects of MSM
brainwashing and propaganda
China is attempting a mixed economy favoring socialism AFAICT

Today I see the Democrats as representing capitalism and Republicans representing fascism.

In the same vein Republicans spent a long time after the Civil War posing as the party believing in equal rights for the black man. The earliest ones really did, and for that they got smeared as "Radical Republicans". Not anymore! These days it's the Democrats who pretend to care, and the Republicans don't even bother putting on a show.

Readers who find the page broken can fix it for themselves by using the Firefox free browser and selecting the built-in Reader View. This strips extraneous formatting and ads from most pages, and formats the text in a beautifully readable large format.

I've mentioned this before but I finally got smart and did an image search for what this looks like. Here's the first result - look at this screenshot from the Firefox community of how MoA could be displayed for you.

This feature is invaluable for all formatting that offends you. The solution is in your own hands.

Apologies if this has already been offered in this thread. I haven't read all the comments yet, I skipped ahead to post this.

Another way to read a web page that is hard to read - such as those that spread across the entire screen with a small font - is to copy the whole page into a Word document or other such text file. This is pretty trivial to do and doesn't take much system resources, even for old computers.

In windows, Control+A will select everything on the page, Ctrl-C will copy it, and Ctrl-V will paste it wherever you choose.

I agree that commenters who should know better...should know better. But really, one can make this page readable for oneself.

Thanks for that but then I went on a read the whole depressing thing
What is told me though was that the end is coming
The absence of information being put out reflects lack of controlled narrative
It gets back to my spinning plate characterization of late stage empire
Empire has had to put more plates into play to make up for effectiveness of the ones going
When they crash the internet you will know that the Hail Mary prayer has just been said
and the yellow vest folks of France will be the least of their worries.

Abram - from james link @75
"while Guaido calls for humanitarian assistance for the people of Venezuela, Maduro
continues to block unhindered access to international humanitarian assistance, and denies
Venezuelans the basic necessities they direly need, unless they declare loyalty to him."

Pompeo and I think Trump are also pushing this line.

From b's NYT link..
"Venezuelan military officials and troops in exile will then move these supplies
into Venezuela, where if all goes well, army troops still loyal to Mr. Maduro will
not stop their passage nor fire upon them. If they do, the Brazilian and Colombian
governments may be willing to back the anti-Maduro soldiers."

Looks as though this is how Trump and gang plan to kick off the war in venezuela.

". . . A picture circulated on social media and mainstream outlets on Wednesday purported to show containers blocking the Tienditas bridge, which connects border towns Cucuta in Colombia and Urena in Venezuela. Several US officials reacted, with Secretary Pompeo calling on Maduro to 'let aid reach starving people.'

"However, National Constituent Assembly President Diosdado Cabello clarified in his TV program that the bridge has been closed since 2016. At the time of writing, the Simon Bolivar and Francisco de Paula Santander bridges continue open as normal, while reports emerged on Thursday that aid shipments had started to arrive in Cucuta. . . ."

@59 grieved..i have a 27" monitor, so i am immune to it, lol.. i still don't own a cell phone!

@ psychohistorian / peter au.. they pay these script writers good bucks to come up with this really friendly sounding arsenic!! they come up good hook sales pitches, duping anyone into swallowing complete garbage... in fact - they are serving up garbage and many folks will happily eat it!!! i can't imagine how one eats assualt rifles, if that is what their 'humanitarian' aid is primarily made up of? why not just cut with the bullshit and quit the economic sanctions which do indeed kill innocent people...

nah, there lines here are even worse then their silence on yemen... one would have to be insane to buy any of it, although the nyt, wapo, wsj and complicit msm will be pedaling it for them 24/7 here forward...

@63 john anthony - fascinating.. thanks! no wonder they want to peddle that picture everywhere, even if it like the usa propaganda briefing today, is complete garbage...

Venezuela "Bridge Closure" to aid - FAKE NEWS. Bridge was NEVER OPEN TO BEGIN WITH

The Young World:

Great excitement about two containers and a truck trailer standing across a bridge over the Rio Táchira. Venezuela's government closed the border crossing with the Colombian city of Cucuta to prevent the delivery of "humanitarian aid," US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo revolted on Twitter the night of Thursday.

In fact, the Las Tienditas Bridge has never been open. Its construction was started in 2013 to relieve the two existing border crossings in San Antonio and Ureña, which are passed by more than 50,000 people each day in both directions. It was completed in 2016, but never opened. The only regular users were smugglers who managed cheap gas from Venezuela to Colombia at night.

Nevertheless, NTN 24 Colombian television announced on Tuesday that "humanitarian aid" would be transported to Venezuela via this bridge. Diosdado Cabello, President of the Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, warned on Wednesday (local time) on his weekly television program "Con el Mazo Dando" that this was the beginning of an irregular war. Otherwise, it would be a "show". The opposition has announced that it plans to bring in goods for 20,000 people - while the government of President Nicolás Maduro is distributing six million food parcels every month at subsidized prices.

Puerto Ricos Deputy Prime Minister Luis Rivera Marín told the US broadcaster CNN Thursday that the first shipments have arrived in Venezuela. They had made out "some windows" and used them, he said. Further deliveries would follow. This has not been confirmed by other side so far. However, the local daily El Carabobeño reported on Wednesday that the day before at the international airport of the city of Valencia a Miami-based supply of weapons of war had been discovered. The National Guard presented the confiscated arsenal that was destined for terrorist groups.

Venezuelan observers view all this as a sign that the original US-US coup plans have failed to materialize. Apparently, they had firmly reckoned that Maduro already overthrown or at least relevant parts of the military would have joined the opposition. In fact, support for the self-appointed "transitional president" Juan Guaidó is crumbling in the country. In Moscow, one expects therefore with a direct military intervention of the USA in Venezuela. Spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Sakharova, said on Thursday that it must be concluded that Washington has already decided to use force. If the US was really interested in making it easier for people in Venezuela, they would have to lift sanctions against the country.

Meanwhile, the US Senate seems to be failing to adopt a joint opposition motion in Venezuela from both major parties. As NBC News reported on Thursday, the Democrats want to exclude a use of the US military. On the other hand, the ultra right-wing Republican Marco Rubio is resisting. He said that the US already had diplomats and "other personnel" in Venezuela, whose protection would require military intervention.

Dimitris Pantoulas, a political scientist in Caracas, called the opposition’s aid delivery plan a high-stakes gamble.
...
“This is 99 percent about the military and one percent about the humanitarian aspects,” he said.

Heh. I thought the "humanitarian" aid would be 5% for saving people and 95% for killing people. Looks like Pantoulas is even more cynical than I am (1% for saving, 99% for killing).

If the bloody imperialist yanks and their Ukrainian Canadian asshat Freedland try to invade Venezuela and do yet another regime change I can only hope they get their fucking asses KICKED! Viva la Revolución Bolivariana!

I have to see some sort of war with Venezuela as inevitable. Trump is being backed into a corner as the people around him are being indicted/convicted. I am expecting some sort of border incident that will tie together drugs, immigrants, terrorism, gangs, human trafficking and somehow Maduro, as an excuse to start returning fire at 5:45.

ralphieboy @69:
I still can't see US boots in meaningful numbers in Venezuela. They'll get Brazil and Colombia to do the heavy lifting. I'm still expecting more attempts at Iran. US troops is suppose to fully withdraw from Syria by April; probably head towards Iraq.

What the US is trying to do in Venezuela is so outlandish that I would have found it unbelievable in any fiction script. Some kind of color revolution failed to unseat Maduro. The military is holding for now - the failed coup attempts have been feeble although the 2002 one almost succeeded. Pompeo, Bolton and Abrams back again are like caricatures of serious high government figures. Say what you will about Reagan's James Baker, I considered him an adult and knowlegable of the international scene but there's nobody in the Trump admin I would consider an adult. Clowns to the left of me clowns to the right of me. What to do? What to do? As the middle's no help.

I suspect [canadian support] is more then just crystallix - the canuck gold mining company - that are pushing for a change in power in Venezuela.. as i understand it, there are a number of canuck mining and oil related interests where they would like to exploit Venezuela and can't seem to get around the democratically elected gov't of Maduros..

Congratulations posters in naming the powers behind and pushing the nation states to war in foreign lands. Nation states are inanimate objects. The names of those who direct those who push the buttons of the nation state eliminate the journalistic cover up of saying its the nation state.

Recall a nation state is an armed structure, designed by those who control the area defined by its boundaries. The function of the nation state is to maintain by the political, military and other corrupt puppets the structure in accord to the intentions of the designers of the nation state. Its purpose is to make the designers wealthy and to control and subdue the behaviors and expectations of the masses for benefit of the designers

Most nation state designs provide the designers with information feed back so that the designers can improve or amend the designs of the their armed structure and so the designers can instruct the puppets of the designers in how to function within the armed rule making structure.

Today I see the Democrats as representing capitalism and Republicans representing fascism. In the same vein Republicans spent a long time after the Civil War posing as the party believing in equal rights for the black man. The earliest ones really did, and for that they got smeared as "Radical Republicans". Not anymore! These days it's the Democrats who pretend to care, and the Republicans don't even bother putting on a show. Posted by: Zachary Smith | Feb 7, 2019 9:53:49 PM | 56

Mr. ZS, I believe you have missed the point. This switching around and up/down manipulating is a part of the divide and conquer strategy which has been so effective for Zionism.
Zionism is a system of economics that decimates and eliminates (as in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Libya, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Venezuela, etc. ) any and all competition. Zionism is about competition or its inverse monopoly powers.

France had said it would support European Union oversight of new offshore energy pipelines in a move that could have crippled the undersea pipeline plans between Russia and Germany.

But the two EU countries have now agreed to ensure oversight will come from the "territory and territorial sea of the member state where the first interconnection point is located," according to a copy of the draft obtained by AFP.

Work has already started on the pipeline from Russia under the Baltic Sea to the end-point in Griefswald, Germany.

The draft text replaces the older wording stating the EU rules on gas imports will be applied by "the territory of the member states" and or the "territorial sea of the member states".

======

The tiny bruhaha was that France voiced support for "oversight by EU", which means that Atlanticists would have many ways of sabotaging the operations. So far, it was up to Germany, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, and the latter two would not oppose Germany too much. The "compromise" is that Germany does it alone. Macron raised the issue and now can go back focusing on Yellow Jackets.

BTW, about sabotaging pipeline operations. For pipelines within EU, a directive obliges them to limit the capacity given to a single supplier to 50% of the total capacity, which makes it harder to transport Gasprom fuel. I do not know how it is resolved, but for a while it created a "choke point".

If one looks at the bridge on Google Maps, it is possible to see a partial barricade already in place, right over the middle of the river that divides the two countries. There is a piece of fencing on each of the three parts of the bridge, and the middle section one can also see the concrete blocks present on the COLOMBIAN side, strongly suggesting that the obstructions were put there originally to block traffic into Colombia.

The smallest of the three bridges is the northernmost one, and thus Pompeo's tweeted pic clearly shows the concrete blocks on the Colombian side. It would appear that the Venezuelans added additional obstructions on their side, but who can blame them for doing that?

I note that John Gilbert's important post on the architect of the Venezuela attempted coup at 42 has not been commented on. This Venezuela affair is not a case of Canada doing US work, it is the opposite.
Some main points on the instigator and implementer, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland:
>formed the Lima Group together with Ricardo Luna of Peru on Aug 8, 2017.
>she is a friend of Victoria Nuland, and a passionate supporter of her coup in Ukraine.
>her parents were Ukrainian and supported the Nazis during World War II
>her father was a Nazi operative in Ukraine during the German occupation.
>is a close friend of George Soros.
>lied and covered up her family's Nazi history.

This information, and other facts of this sordid affair, is included in "How Chrystia Freeland Organized Donald Trump’s Coup in Venezuela" by Kevin Zuesse here which links to a post from John Helmer here.

Elliott Abrams, named by Pompeo to State Dept today, was convicted during the Iran Contra affair, was pardoned by George HW Bush after he lost the 1992 election. The coverup pardons were facilitated by then-Bush-AG and current Trump AG nominee Barr.

"The "compromise" is that Germany does it alone. Macron raised the issue and now can go back focusing on Yellow Jackets."

Yes. This so-called compromise is 100% the German position. Merkel showed Macron who's the boss. The question in the first place is why Macron raised the issue. He has lost, despite all face-saving formulations.

Interesting, just watched a short segment on role of Edward Bernays in the demonisation of the (then) new government of Guatemala following the nationalisation of the United Fruit Company plantations. [skip to 1:31:22 / 3:54:43].

See Nixon playing Trump and the script of bananas (rather than Venezuelan oil) sees Arbenz vs Colonel Armas.

I've never seen any indication that the manual is fake. It appears to be a legitimate leak of the real manual for regime change. It was first leaked in 2008, the same year of publication. Wikileaks is highlighting it now to show how the international financial institutions, supposedly impartial, have in reality been inseparably complicit in the military efforts to destabilize countries. All the world's major financial structures have been created for economic warfare.

From the Whitney Webb article, a quote from the manual:

[it] states that the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) – which oversees U.S. sanctions on other nations, like Venezuela — “has a long history of conducting economic warfare valuable to any ARSOF [Army Special Operations Forces] UW [Unconventional Warfare] campaign.”

What's happening now with Venezuela is that many of these obscured norms are being revealed. I can offer more collateral for this thought later tonight.

We announce the beginning of the collection phase of the #Humanitarian Assistance for the most vulnerable Venezuelans. It is up to the FAN to allow their families to receive the help they need. Thanks to everyone who made this help a reality.

Meanwhile, regular life goes on in Venezuela. Here's the twitter feed of the Governor (Rafael Lacava) of the state of Carobobo just west of Caracas. . . .Bridges have to be painted, children have to be attended to, there are beautiful skies at the SkatePark, etc.

D. B., F blogger, publishes a trans. of an interview of Dmitry Novikov, VP of the Central Communist Committee, Russia.

He was present at Maduro’s investiture.

of interest, my pick and gloss - /my comments/

.. The constitution mandates in which locale the official swearing-in can take place: either in the National Assembly or in the Supreme Court, it took place at the latter, because some of the decisions of of the Assembly aka Parliament, recall held by the opposition, which nobody contests, have been invalidated by the Supreme C. /Symbolism: the Highest Authority in the land was the seat./ All the judges were present / thus endorsing, pre-emptively upholding/ Maduro was sworn in, signed docs., made a speech.

Mais! there was a second venue - at the Military Academy in Caracas, which is the Central symbolic seat of the Forces. The Ceremony was organised by the Min. of Def., Vladimir Padrino Lopez. There was a parade .. In essence, we saw the Military pledging allegiance to the President.

.. other:

The no. 1. reason the Kremlin is supporting Maduro is merely that he is being attacked by the US, and it is necessary to support a multi-polar world /plus one supposes the ‘rule of law’ which he didn’t mention./ The no 2. reason is economic, Russian entrepreneurs have invested a lot.. economic coop. remains essential for the 2 countries.

Another way to read a web page that is hard to read - such as those that spread across the entire screen with a small font - is to copy the whole page into a Word document or other such text file.

I do this myself, but only in the most extreme cases. It's my impression the people having trouble with the current thread are those with handheld devices. I've forced to own a rather large "smartphone", but the thing hardly ever gets used, and even then only for 'talking'. I'm addicted to my antique 15" LED screen displaying Firefox for navigating the internet tubes.

Canadian posters may find this interesting. Apparently the Freeland/Trudeau project in Venezuela will not be good for Alberta's oil industry.
Also the Conservatives and NDP are not showing much opposition.

"
The problem for Alberta arises from our man Guaido's promise to end the Maduro government's policy of requiring the national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela to hold a controlling stake in any joint venture with a foreign oil company. That would open the door to heavy U.S. corporate involvement in the vast Venezuelan oil reserves, said to be the largest in the world, and which include oilsands similar in size to Alberta's. That, in turn, would end the United States’ blockade of Venezuelan oil, part of its campaign to topple the Maduro government.

This is potentially serious for Alberta because Venezuela is conveniently located just across the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico near the U.S. refineries along the Gulf Coast of Texas, where most of Alberta’s low-quality bitumen nowadays ends up.

In the simplest terms, one likely effect of this unfolding scenario would be to flood those American refineries with cheap, heavy oil from Venezuela."

" ... In Canadian newspapers, some supporters of Freeland and her grandfather—especially those of Ukrainian descent—paid attention to the fact that Mykhailo Chomiak never personally signed any story published by the Krakivski Visti. But if he was smart enough to foresee the consequences of Stalin’s occupation of Lviv when he ran to Nazi-occupied Cracow, he was smart enough not to sign any story in his paper.

... There is no doubt Chomiak was very good at what he did for the Nazis in Krakivski Visti—otherwise, why would he be taken to Vienna, together with his family, in 1944 with the retreating Nazi army? German recourses [sic] were scarce—and they spent them on Chomiak.

He did not stay in Cracow to join Polish resistance.

In Vienna, he continued to publish the newspaper.

From Vienna, with the help of his retreating Nazi bosses, he resettled in Bavaria.

For the third time, he chose Hitler over Stalin.

And, by that point, wasn’t Stalin an ally of the United States?

It was in Bavaria that Chomiak surrendered to Americans and, three years later, immigrated to Canada to reunite with his sister."

The Freelands are the textbook example of how anti-communist extremism unites the neoliberal centre and the right wing around a historical defence of gas chambers and smart bombs (though the liberals would prefer you refer to those as "feminist bombs.")

Don Bacon 68
I had read that it was the US that put together the Lima group so that it would not appear the US was taking the leading role in attacking Venezuela. The Lima group was put together several months after Trump assumed office.
I had wondered why it is now that the coup is taking place, immediately after the inauguration of Maduro, rather than back when the elections took place. I suspect that is because Maduro was still the president from the previous election with his previous term ending at the inauguration date, which they decided not to challenge.
The moves were planned and put in operation within the first months of Trump taking office, putting together the Lima group to act as a proxy, telling vassal states not to participate as international observers in the presidential election of 2018, and then biding the time until Maduro's previous term had expired.
Putting off the main move on Venezuela until now has also allowed the US to concentrated on the middle east, but I suspect much of what they were trying to do there has run into problems so its time to concentrate on Venezuela while setting up a new plan of attack for the middle east.

Cannot recommend this article highly enough. Very long, but quite literally the best resource I've found in weeks of reading about this. It also has the benefit of being written by three actual Venezuelans and in 2016, well before the latest round of incendiary (and unison) American MSM "reporting" on that country.

MSM reports on US attempts to buy the Venezuelan military is very encouraging. They are not getting any buyers. Corruption seems more on the civilian side with a number of diplomats swapping sides.
There is no chance of the US being able to kick off a Syria type war in Venezuela, so now it remains to be seen how far the US will go.
Thought of the moment is that US will use Guaido as they use Hadi of Yemen.

I don't think anyone is doubting that it is a political stunt but it would be very interesting if it works. A war avoided, peaceful protests finally leading to elections and all because we bombed them with food.

It's possible that this will hurt Maduro enough to topple him, it's not likely but also not impossible. If he does continue to block aid, as things get worse, it could be the straw that breaks the camels back. For years we have heard peace organizations chanting things like drop love not bombs or even drop food not bombs. Well we just dropped food, not bombs, and if dropping food works it wouldn't be the worst outcome.

No it's none of our business but it's also HIGHLY unlikely to end in an invasion with Trump in office. Yes sanctions hurt, we already see the effects of Chavez's and Maduro sanctions against his own people, that's what socialism is. It's one huge sanction against your own people. Try and do business with them and see. I know because I used to do business with them until it became impossible. I don't like sanctions but no socialist on the face of the earth has any business complaining about them, not considering that their entire regime is based on sanctioning their people and anyone who wants to freely do business with them.

By the way, it's not just US aid that can't get through. The people right now are living on goods smuggled in against the will of Maduro already. If not for blackmarket goods that are smuggled in against the will of Maduro the people would really be starving. And no none of this is new news to me, I've been pissed at their regime because of how they made it impossible to do business with them for a long time.

Yeah, yeah, I know, but (insert conspiracy theory here) is actually taking place and then we will invade and blahblahblah. Except that Trump is in charge, so we will not invade. And don't be surprised if they end up making a deal for new elections within a year one way or another.

I have friends in Venezuela right now, they want new elections and I hope they get them. Trump may or may not be helping them, but they did in fact come to Trump for help. All this BS about underhanded undercover blah blah blah. The people want this smuck gone, his government shot, cooked and ate the golden goose (that they stole from Exxon the Giant). The giant might be an @sshole but they cooked their own goose on this one.

Think about this, even after stealing the means of production and getting huge investments from Russia and China to keep it running, they could not make a go of socialism. It's BS that it's the US's fault. We were still their number one customer by far until the other day. They themselves refused to do business with people in any normal way because of their own socialist policies, they sanctioned themselves into oblivion. That's what socialism does, think about this too. We anti-war people say all the time that sanctions are an act of war, well then socialism is an act of war against your own people every single day!

This is none of our business but either way, F Maduro and if you don't like it too bad. Anti-war people look like nothing more than malcontents when they continue to suck up to every tin pot dictator just because he waves his sword at the US. It makes it look like all we care about is hurting the US. Well sometimes a piece of garbage is just a piece of garbage, even if he pretends to be anti-US, (While taking as much money from us as possible and crying when we won't do business with him, while he won't do business with ME and people just like me). So again F Maduro, he sanctioned me and his own people a long time ago and he has no business crying about it when it's done back to him. Yeah I feel sorry for the people hurt by the new Trump sanctions, but I have been feeling sorry for the People of Venezuela hurt by their own government sanctions for much much longer. This might be new to the rest of you, it's not new to me at all.

@ 94 what fucking dictator you tool? his own people want him, more than the unelected fraud we are currently trying to get installed. you're just catapulting bullshit propaganda for the war. the united states should butt the fuck out of trying to destabilize venezuela and give them their fucking gold.

Amazed and bamboozled by the continuing ease with which the US Bullshit & Drivel Machine has been dominating the Fake News designed to sweeten the bitter pill of US Regime Change Ops, I've been reviewing the insinuations provoked by a 2006 documentary about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
The doco is called UFOs, Lies, and The Cold War. Here is a link.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il4qGFW4r4U
There are many others on the www. It's 53 minutes.

It opens with data from a UFO sighting by two Belgian Air Force jets, the subsequent Belgian analysis of the event, and the observation that the US dominates 'thinking' on UFOs and has done so since UFO stories became popular in the 1940s and 1950s.

It hilights, but doesn't dwell on the fact that post-WWII AmeriKKKa was the undisputed Sole Superpower. It brushes lightly over the fact that the US looted and embraced Nazi Technology, but doesn't mention that the people running the US are Nazi-er than Hitler and way more dedicated to world domination.

If one looks upon the UFO phenomenon as an inaugural CIA, et al, experiment in information control and domination, via various new and opaque organisations which can speak, or be cited with authority, on any topic, then one can conclude that the experiment yielded an enduring template. The doco also states that part of the original plot was the recruitment of 400+ disinfo-friendly journalists well before we common folk started getting suspicious.

Something went wrong after WWII. Imo the insinuations in this doco help to identify the symptoms if not the causes.

lol, "I know Venezuelans who want Maduro out, therefore he must go". Guess what, Brad Smith? I know Americans who hate Trump and want him out. More than the 14% of Venezuelans who don't oppose the sanctions, to boot.
And yet, no country is dropping food aid to the 30% of American children who go hungry at least part of each month. Why not? Do they not care about fostering democracy in the USA?
Thanks to KC for providing the history of the US attempt at full spectrum dominance of Venezuela through the decades. People who restart US history with each new president puppet are annoying. The plans are carried through no matter which talking head is placed in the White House.
Blaming this on Bush or Obama or Trump ignores the facts. For instance, this Juan dude was groomed during Bush's time, with a NGO set up during Clinton's time. Bush also backed a coup, while Obama pushed for crippling sanctions.
The current coup did NOT start in "the first few days of Trump's presidency."
And Elliot Abrams was a war criminal from way back in the Reagan years. The US is run by the men behind the curtain, not the actors on the stage.https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/